Tyga, Carnegie – The Age Good Food Guide review

Tom yum burrata. Nasi lemak-cum-beef tartare. It’s not fusion, insists your waiter, it’s “neo-South-East Asian”. In any case, you can file this borderless wonderland under “bold and exuberant” – and “a boon for Carnegie”. A killer design in greens, browns and greys sees the long room spilling from a bar zone with DJ decks to a charcoal-fired open kitchen overlooked by high tables.

It’s clubby, but you can converse over the retro disco, and a keen team keeps the energy high and the glasses filled with very reasonably priced and predominantly Australian juice. The creative mind behind the menu is the brilliant, itinerant Esca Khoo, with ex-Pt Leo Estate sous chef Michael Iskandar rattling the pans in his first head chef job. His wood-grilled chicken is outstandingly juicy, served with cut-through capsicum-chilli jam.

Crying kangaroo is a wonderful take on Thailand’s crying tiger: roo fillet is rubbed with a Vegemite-spiked spice mix, grilled and served with leaves for wrapping. Suburban, optimistic, Asian, but reworked with Australian motifs – is this the future of Melbourne dining?

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.